Six Of Seven Charter School Applications Denied By School Reform Commission

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Applications for new charter schools went one-for-seven at the School Reform Commission Thursday night.

Only one new charter school got the green light from the School Reform Commission: a third K-12 Math, Science, and Technology charter, this one in Somerton.

But the SRC imposed conditions, limiting MaST to half of the 2600 students it wanted to serve and, over concerns the school wasn’t diverse enough, requiring it to draw half of them from low-income zip codes.

MaST CEO John Swoyer says they’ll abide by the conditions.

“Obviously we’re excited to have another charter to serve more kids. We’ll work it out,” he said.

Six other charters were denied, including two operated by ASPIRA, incorporated. A Philadelphia Hebrew Charter was also denied; that school would have taught the Hebrew language, not religion.

Commissioner Bill Green, who voted in favor of the Hebrew charter, urged the school to resubmit its application, something Hebrew Public CEO Jon Rosenberg said he would do.

A third of Philadelphia school students go to the city’s 84 charters now.